Friday, August 5, 2016

Guild Wars 2 - Level 80 & Beyond Guide │ What to Do & Goals to Have by GSmaniamsmart

Recently I created a New Players Beginners’ Guide
to Guild Wars 2 that was heavily supported and seemed to help a lot of
people out. Many of you had stated that I should also make a level 80
and beyond guide, so here it is.

If you haven't seen my beginners' guide for Guild Wars 2, please
check it out, because there is some content in there worth knowing about
that I won't go as much in-depth in here, as I do there.

Understanding & Gathering the Essentials
Once you're level 80, the real fun begins. Most of the game's content
is heavily revolved around level 80, hence why it's fairly easy to
level up to max. However, with the many things to do in-game at max
level, some players can find it hard to get started on anything. This is
what causes a good number of players to even quit the game once they
get to 80, missing out on all of the end game content Guild Wars 2 has
to offer.

Just like when you first start the game, one of the first things I’d
do when getting to max level is obtaining the essentials. This includes
max level gathering tools that can be bought from any merchant (they
will be blue colored), 20 slot inventory bags (which can be bought from
the trading post, or crafted), and at least rare gear (they will be
yellow, and can be bought from the trading post, crafted and gained from
world bosses, story missions, and other parts of the game).

Essentially the main goal is to get your exotic gear, and if you have
the gold for it, go ahead and buy it because you’ll have better stats
and be more competent. If you don’t have enough gold, upgrade your
weapons first, and then start upgrading your armor and trinkets. If you
happen to be very poor, make sure you continue to salvage everything to
earn more luck to increase your magic find and chances of getting
exotics as drops. Otherwise farm for gold, which will be easy to
accomplish with the many things you can do from here on with your yellow
gear. As long as you know how to dodge and play your class, yellow gear
should be fine for some of the end-game content, but get orange gear as
soon as possible! Now would also be a good time to look at runes and
sigils for your exotic gear, if you have it, which synergize well with
your build. Note orange runes and sigils cannot be slotted to anything
lower orange gear.

As much as earning gold, and gearing up to exotics is important, it’s
also important to ensure that you have all your skills and
specializations unlocked from your Hero panel. If you still are missing
some skills and specializations, use your hero points or complete hero
challenges throughout the maps to gain more points. Specializations make
a difference in all of the end game content and this should be a
priority. Upon unlocking all of these it’s best to fully understand your
class now, understand how certain skills can work well together, and
how certain traits in your specializations synergize with skills,
weapons, and your choice of runes and sigils. If you’re completely
stumped and don’t know where to begin you can always use an online
resource such as MetaBattle to see current top builds.

PVE, Dungeons & Fractals
When it comes to completing content there are several routes you can
take, and I’ll be going over them all in terms of difficulty, be aware
these are opinionated and you may find some easier.

Now that you’re max level it’s important to have goals, as I
mentioned in the previous guide, this game is heavily goal driven, and
once you’ve completed your personal story (which should be done by now),
the game doesn’t really push you in a direction anymore, you pick your
own. Completing the world map is one option as you’ll get enough hero
points to max out not only your specializations and skills, but also
gain progress on your Elite specialization and Tyria masteries if you
have Heart of Thorns.

Your Elite specialization gives you more skills and traits, and your
mastery tracks give you special perks for PVE, such as auto-loot, more
rewards from fractals, legendary crafting and more. These mastery tracks
can be completed through gaining experience throughout Tyria, which
pretty encompasses everything in this guide. To complete these tracks
and unlock the perks you need mastery points, which again, can be earned
from completing a variety of content in the game.

If you’re not feeling like going through each map however, I do
recommend checking out all of the world bosses that you can now
participate in, or some of the higher level map events in the Orr maps
such as the Cursed Shore. Both of these options give you lots of loot,
gold, experience and mastery points. There’s a ton of content in Tyria
to explore, including mini-dungeons, jumping puzzles, and map
meta-events that all give you experience and loot and should be very
accessible now since you’re level 80. Feel free to explore and enjoy the
game, there’s no rush.

If seeking for something more challenging and rewarding you can try
out dungeons and fractals. You’ve probably already done a few dungeons
prior to level 80, but now, you can try all of the dungeons and complete
them a lot quicker. Each dungeon has several paths to clear aimed
towards level 80 characters and gives lots of loot, a good amount of
liquid gold (even more so if completing the Dungeon Frequenter
achievement which requires 8 completed paths), and experience.

Fractals on the other hand have always been a bit more challenging
for me as there are many more mechanics involved, some puzzle solving,
and instabilities to overcome. If you get into fractals and complete
most of the lower scales, these fractals become more difficult the
higher you climb the fractal ladder. The higher you climb, the better
rewards you’ll get as well. This is a great place to acquire ascended
gear too which is even better than exotic gear, and will be explained
more about a bit later. It’s also key to understand that the higher you
go in the fractal ladder, the more agony resistance you will need too.
Agony resistance is basically a stat of defense for higher level
fractals, each higher level requiring more and more agony resistance,
which is earned from completing fractals and can be slotted into
ascended gear. Both fractals and dungeons give you the opportunity to
earn skins too for your armor and weapons that are exclusive to those
PVE modes (excluding PVP and WvW reward tracks).

PVP & WvW
For the most part, you’ll probably want to do dungeons first since
you won’t need ascended gear as you do in higher tier fractals to
benefit from the required agony resistance. Aside from these activities,
WvW and PvP are still part of the game too. Now since you’re level 80
and understand your class a bit more, you may want to participate in a
lot more PvP. Once confident enough you can participate in ranked PvP
that allows you to climb through a series of ranks depending on how well
you play, and how much you win. This is basically another reward track
that rewards you with a badge next to your name, gold, and dyes. On top
of this, you can still earn rewards from the normal reward tracks that
are offered. Similarly, WvW may now be more suitable for you too. With
your skills and specializations unlocked you can now be a bit more
competent in WvW, whether you want to follow a commander or learn the
maps and strategies to command one of your own squads. WvW has a lot to
offer, for guilds and for personal rewards, not to mention you can make
some new friends. Every server either has a TeamSpeak or a website where
you can participate on to learn more about WvW, or simply just follow a
tag on the map to be a part of the action in killing armies of players
and capturing keeps and towers.

Living World & Story
If you’re ready to get back into the story, you can always begin the
Living World season missions if you have them unlocked or start the
Heart of Thorns content. Each living world episode gives you loot, some
mastery points, and a great story that follows the original personal
story. The Heart of Thorns story will take you through the new maps and
allow you to experience yet a second personal story sort of. Each of
these maps are a bit harder than regular maps you’re used to in Tyria,
but there’s a lot to do. Whether you like mini-games and want to
complete all the adventures, are an explorer and want to map complete,
are an achiever and want to complete the large number of achievements to
fully experience every map and boss, or just need some gold by
participating in the map meta-events, there’s something for everyone.
Since you’re in the Heart of Thorns maps now too, you’ll also be able to
progress through your Heart of Thorns mastery tracks which offer perks
such as gliding, bonus rewards, ways of traveling through the map
faster, and gaining advantages to kill mobs in the area. Similarly
you’ll need Heart of Thorns mastery points which can be earned from
completing achievements and exploring the maps. These maps are also
great for progressing through Elite specializations as hero challenges
here give 10 points instead of 1.

Each of these maps also have skins for your armor and weapons, so if
your into fashion you may want to consider looking at each of these
games modes (dungeons, fractals, and Heart of Thons maps) to gather all
the skins. Dry Top and Silverwastes also offer great ways to make gold
quickly, gather mastery points and unlock even more skins too, so don’t
forget about those either. These work very similarly to Heart of Thorns
maps and are also a tad harder than the normal Tyria maps.

Raids, Legendary & Ascended Gear
If you’re still looking for even more of a challenge and want to
really max your character out you may also want to look at raids and
ascended gear. Ascended gear is heavily recommended for raids, and
should be on your radar as soon as possible since it can take a very
long time to craft these, if you aren’t sitting on top of mountains of
gold in which you can then just buy your way into making them. Ascended
gear is better than exotic gear, and just like exotic gear you should
look at upgrading your weapons first. However, if you’ve been playing
the game for quite some time now, you’ve probably earned enough tokens
such as laurels, fractal relics, guild commendations and Badges of Honor
to buy your ascended trinkets, so be sure to check those first. Once
you have if not all, but some of your ascended gear at least you could
try to participate in raids.

Raids are probably the hardest content to complete in the game and
require lots of time, patience, skill, and cooperation with other
players. These instances can be very rewarding and can also start you on
your journey to obtaining legendary armor. You can look for a raid in
the LFG system just as you can look for others to play dungeons,
fractals, and Heart of Thorns maps with. All of the raids can be
accessed from the Lion’s Arch Aerodrome just nearby where fractals can
be accessed in the southern portion of Lion’s Arch.

And while on the topic of legendary armor, which requires raid
completion, liquid gold, crafting materials, and collection completions,
legendary weapons can be acquired too. It’s important to note that
legendary stats do not exceed ascended stats. Hence, an ascended sword
and chest piece is just as good as a legendary one. The difference is
that stats can be swapped from legendary gear whenever you want, and
they offer an awesome skin and look to them making them stand out from
the other gear; it’s a way to show off your accomplishment in the game.
Be aware that both legendary weapons and gear require a lot of time,
effort and gold, but can be very fun to complete. With Heart of Thorns
you can even go on a journey and set of missions to get the precursor
for your legendary weapon which is the bulk of the hard work.

Extras & Closing Thoughts
Still with all of this content in the game, there’s still so much to
do. As a level 80 and now able to acquire rare and valuable materials
you can also contribute to your guild to help build your guild hall, and
participate in all of the guild missions. There are also a ton of neat
little achievements that range from very easy to difficult in completing
collections to earn useful gizmos such as Princess to eat bloodstone
dust and give back loot, home instance nodes that can be placed in your
home instance and gathered by you and your friends every day, and even
more rare skins and ascended gear such as unique back pieces that too
have a whole set of missions and steps on their own. This still doesn’t
include many of the live updates that ArenaNet patches every two weeks
or so that include new current event content offering more achievements
and a small advancement in the story, and the myriad of festivals that
come at specific times throughout the year that offer tons of fun.

Whether you’re a hardcore gamer who’s looking for a challenge, a
casual gamer looking for fun, or someone with a creative mind for décor
or fashion, Guild Wars 2’s end-game has a ton to offer. And if all of
this still seems overwhelming where you still feel lost and not sure
where to begin, feel free to see any of the links below that go even
more in-depth in explaining the processes of gaining ascended gear,
completing Silverwastes, running dungeons, making gold, earning mastery
points and your elite specialization, agony resistance in fractals and
much more!

I hope this guide has helped you as well as the beginners’ guide, and
if it’s anything that you should keep in mind from reading any of this,
is that you should always have a goal and strive towards completing
something. There’s a lot to complete in Guild Wars 2 (more than I can
even cover), and with such a great community that is willing to help
others, don’t ever be afraid to ask in map chat, or in the comments
sections for help!